10.02.23
May we delight in the many faces and experiences of change
February is here. January has completed itself and we can experience a new month, a fresh one, with a clean slate. In our daily lives, we are constantly experiencing change.
We may notice how sometimes we view change as welcome, a blessing. Other times it’s viewed as unwelcome, almost as if what is arising is being forced on us from an external source. There are also times when we experience a felt sense in the body/ mind that change is occurring and this can be interpreted as exciting or a sense of dread. This felt/ sense can be experienced in so many varying degrees.
When we lean in too much or lean away from experiences, objects, relationships, beliefs, etc. Or another way of saying this is to hold onto or withhold from it, we often experience a feeling/ sensation in the body/mind of uncomfortableness, and change is sometimes resisted or experienced as discontent.
Recently I spent time with a “delight journal” each day I would write just a few words or maybe even one word that on reflection of the day I had delighted with. An example is... I wrote about the experience of eating a russet apple (my particular favorite variety of apples). Rereading the journal I noticed a process, the first entries were words that conveyed delight in the sense perceptions. The earthy taste, the earthy smell, the rough skin, etc.
Then the entries demonstrated a softening of focus if you like I was delighting in the simple existence of a russet apple. From here the journal demonstrated a shift to delighting in delighting. The day was experienced as delighting.
The ever-changing energy of daily life is simply asking to be listened to, acknowledged, and respected for what it is.
So how does the dialogue about delighting assist with meeting the ever-changing we experience in daily life? In some ways not at all and simultaneously it demonstrates we can experience daily life viewed through a soft gaze. By this I mean when our gaze is contracted onto an object, a perception, a situation, or a collection of situations there is little space if you like to experience the whole picture. Softening the gaze we experience a universal view, a borderless view we could say.
In experiencing change it may look like we are going in a way we don't want. I am not suggesting at all for us to deny our feelings of dread, or wanting a situation to be different. We may experience discontent or anxiety equally we may experience excitement or contentment. Every feeling, sensation, and perception is valid, and can be acknowledged, and listened to. This does ask us to notice, to be curious, to listen to the whole situation which includes everything that is arising in the situation. From here life unfolds.
Change will be experienced continuously in our daily life but we can discover an unchanging presence from which everything arises. We can discover the interconnectedness of everything. From here change is change, sometimes welcome, sometimes resisted, sometimes easy, sometimes challenging. We can experience both the so called personal and the universal, non personal in this moment.
The ever-changing energy of daily life is simply asking to be listened to, acknowledged, and respected for what it is. Change arises, dances (as welcome or not welcome, as excitement or anxiety, as happiness or challenges, and more) then dissolve into the source it has arisen from. Change completes itself with the wonderful potential to arise again in another form.
May we delight in the many faces and experiences of change.
Amanda x